Estonian CleanTech startup UP Catalyst, which offers a sustainable solution to meet the growing global demand for battery-grade graphite and carbon nanomaterials, has raised a €2.36M seed extension round.
The round saw equal participation from Warsaw Equity Group and Estonia’s state fund SmartCap, which backed the company earlier in a €4M seed. Existing investors, including Extantia, Sunly, Little Green Fund, Scottish Baltic Invest, and UniTartu Ventures, continue to support UP Catalyst.
UP Catalyst focuses on producing sustainable carbon nanomaterials and graphite from CO₂ emissions or waste biomass. Their products include, but are not limited to, battery components, biomedicine, concrete, paints, and coatings.
The funding will accelerate the construction of the company’s first-of-a-kind industrial production unit, positioning UP Catalyst as the largest provider of CO₂-grown carbon materials globally. There are several markets to tackle.
Carbon materials for EV
UP Catalyst produces two key carbon materials specifically designed for electric vehicle (EV) batteries: battery-grade graphite and carbon nanotubes. Its production process has a carbon footprint of just 0.07 tons of CO₂-eq per ton of graphite—20 times lower than conventional graphite production— and 0.7 tons of CO₂-eq per ton of carbon nanotubes, an impressive 242 times lower than the emissions from the traditional Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) method.
“By 2030, the EU will require 3 million tons of carbon materials for electric vehicle batteries. Despite having the potential to utilise 11 million tons of CO₂ through existing technology, the EU currently invests in underground storage and imports fossil-based materials from China,” said Dr Gary Urb, CEO of UP Catalyst. “The technology is ready—we just need the investment to scale up as a crucial step toward utilising at least 200 thousand tons of CO₂ annually by 2030.”
“Supporting UP Catalyst aligns perfectly with Warsaw Equity Group’s mission to invest in ground-breaking technologies that combat climate change. Turning industrial CO₂ emissions into critical carbon-based raw materials that we are severely lacking in Europe is a game changer. We have been continually impressed by the strength and expertise of UP Catalyst’s team and look forward to this partnership,” stated Arvin Khanchandani, Investment Manager at Warsaw Equity Group.
Moving the production forward
UP Catalyst’s innovative technology, Molten Salt Carbon Capture and Electrochemical Transformation (MSCC-ET), relies on the reactor to produce the necessary materials. This is up for a major upgrade—the plan is to expedite the development of an industrial pilot reactor capable of processing 100 tons of CO₂ annually, yielding 27 tons of advanced carbon materials such as graphite and carbon nanotubes.
UP Catalyst has also started to move into a new facility hosting the industrial production unit activities, located right next to the Tallinn waste incineration plant. This enables future direct access to hard-to-abate CO₂ emissions. All in all, the new plant should help increase production output up to ten times and help UP Catalyst meet the growing demand for its sustainable carbon materials.
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